The executive director of the Toledo Zoo, Anne Baker, plans to retire by year's end. As it looks for her successor, the zoo's governing board should aim to build on the economic and educational successes Ms. Baker has achieved.
When she became the zoo's first female director in 2006, Ms. Baker worked to regain community trust after the controversial tenure of her long-time predecessor, William Dennler. Although voters narrowly rejected a levy soon after she took over, she helped persuade them to pass subsequent millages -- including a tax vote last fall, which voters soundly approved despite a tough economy.
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Her record includes the construction of a $15.3 million elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus exhibit. She laid the groundwork for a $25 million renovation of the zoo's aquarium. She replaced the outdated children's petting zoo with the award-winning Nature's Neighborhood.
Along with these physical improvements, Ms. Baker has made major advances at the zoo in the fields of renewable energy and climate change. These realities should continue to be valid elements of the zoo's community outreach efforts.
Early in her tenure, Ms. Baker publicly supported the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate the polar bear as a threatened species, largely because of global warming. Right-wing talk radio ridiculed her for that stance, but it was the right one to take. The board, to its credit, stuck by Ms. Baker.
During her years as director, the zoo also has added its first wind turbine, solar panels, and other clean-energy technologies. These things show zoo visitors how greenhouse gases can be reduced.
Ms. Baker has missed an opportunity to do something more ambitious with the zoo's aquarium project. She could have sought a public-private partnership to build a much larger waterfront aquarium in downtown Toledo, perhaps with an IMAX theater. Similar projects in New Orleans and Chattanooga, Tenn., have been models of economic development as well as public education.
Ms. Baker and her husband, Robert Lacy, an internationally recognized conservation scientist and population geneticist at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, say they want to move into their dream home in Maine and start a new chapter in their lives. We wish them well.
And we encourage the zoo's board to find a successor to Ms. Baker who shares not only her commitment to fund-raising and capital improvements, but also her impassioned leadership in using the zoo as a community resource for all of northwest Ohio.
First Published February 7, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
